Treasure Island Trivia
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59 free Treasure Island trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Almost everything we think we know about pirates, from X marking the spot to the parrot on the shoulder, comes from one book, and this quiz goes through it chapter by chapter. It starts with how Treasure Island came to be: a map drawn to amuse a stepson on a wet Scottish holiday, a serial in Young Folks under a made-up captain's name, and the three words from a travel book that Stevenson called the seed of the whole thing. Then the story itself: the old seaman at the Admiral Benbow, Blind Pew and the black spot, the apple barrel, the one-legged cook and his parrot, the castaway who dreams of cheese, the fight with Israel Hands and the treasure that was never where the map said. The second half is the afterlife of the book: Wallace Beery as the first talking Silver, Robert Newton inventing the pirate accent for Disney's first live-action film, Orson Welles, Tim Curry and Kermit the Frog, the cyborg Silver of Treasure Planet, the prequel Black Sails, a Poet Laureate's sequel, a Star Wars series and a video-game hermit modelled on Ben Gunn. Easy questions are fair for anyone who read the book at school; the expert tier reaches Tom Redruth, Norman Island and Bobby Driscoll's day in court. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the novel, its characters and its adaptations, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Although published in the 1880s, Treasure Island is set in which period?
The 1700s
The 1700s: Jim dates his tale only 'the year of grace 17—', and he vows never to go back for the silver still buried on that 'accursed island'.
Q 02Stevenson admitted he couldn't handle a brig, so what kind of ship did he make the Hispaniola?
A schooner
A schooner: when Jim retakes her from the mutineers, a wounded pirate coaches him to beach her in the island's northern inlet.
Q 03Treasure Island was first serialised in 1881–82 in which children's magazine?
Young Folks
Young Folks: the serial flopped with its young readers, and only as a book did Treasure Island become Stevenson's first real success.
Q 04Under what pseudonym was the serialised Treasure Island credited?
Captain George North
The serial was credited to 'Captain George North'; Stevenson, then little known, put his own name on the later book edition.
Q 05Stevenson admitted borrowing Flint's skeleton pointer from which Poe story?
The Gold-Bug
The Gold-Bug: a servant drops a beetle through a skull's eye to set the line Legrand follows, but he uses the wrong eye, so the first dig finds nothing.
Q 06Where was Stevenson holidaying in 1881 when a painted island map started Treasure Island?
Braemar, Scotland
Braemar, Scotland: rain kept the family indoors, where Stevenson read his chapters aloud as he wrote them and his father chipped in details.
Q 07What was the name of the stepson Stevenson invented Treasure Island to amuse?
Lloyd Osbourne
Lloyd Osbourne, the boy the tale was written to amuse, grew up to co-write The Wrong Box and The Ebb-Tide with his stepfather.
Q 08Stevenson found the seed phrase 'Dead Man's Chest' in a travel book by which author?
Charles Kingsley
Charles Kingsley: his travel book At Last lists a Virgin Island called the Dead Man's Chest, and Stevenson took that name for his pirate song.
Q 09What is the name of the inn on the English coast where Treasure Island opens?
The Admiral Benbow
The Admiral Benbow: after the old captain dies there, a pirate gang raids it for his sea chest, but Jim has already fled with the packet holding Flint's map.
Q 10Who narrates most of Treasure Island?
Jim Hawkins
Jim Hawkins tells the tale, except for three chapters where the doctor takes over, because Jim is off ashore when the loyal party abandons the ship.
Q 11The old seaman lodging at the inn as 'The Captain' is really which former first mate of Flint's?
Billy Bones
Billy Bones, once Flint's mate, pays Jim to watch for 'a seafaring man with one leg' and dies of apoplexy after the black spot is served.
Q 12Which blind beggar delivers the dreaded 'black spot' to the old seaman at the inn?
Pew
Pew: the paper gives the old seaman 'till ten tonight', but the shock of being handed the black spot kills him on the spot.
Q 13Black Dog, who confronts the old captain at the inn, is missing what?
Two fingers of his left hand
Jim notices Black Dog is missing two fingers of his left hand; in the fight that follows, the captain's cutlass gashes his shoulder before he flees.
Q 21Hiding in what does Jim overhear Silver plotting the mutiny?
An apple barrel
Jim climbs into an apple barrel for a snack and hears Silver recruiting hands for a mutiny; he then warns the captain, the squire and the doctor.
Q 22Who is the captain of the Hispaniola?
Alexander Smollett
Alexander Smollett distrusts the crew the squire hires from the very start, and he is proved right when most of them turn out to be mutineers.
Q 23What happens to Mr Arrow, the Hispaniola's alcoholic first mate?
He is lost overboard
He is lost overboard: Mr Arrow vanishes one dark night, and Jim later works out that Silver had been secretly slipping the drunken mate his rum.
Q 14When handed the black spot, Silver points out the paper was torn from what, bringing bad luck?
A Bible
Silver sneers that the spot was cut out of a Bible — Dick's — and warns that a crew which mutilates scripture has thrown away its luck.
Q 15The expedition sails from which English port aboard the Hispaniola?
Bristol
Bristol: Squire Trelawney fits out the Hispaniola there but can't keep quiet about the treasure, so even the hands know their errand before they sail.
Q 16What is Long John Silver's job aboard the Hispaniola?
Ship's cook
Ship's cook: behind the friendly galley act, Silver leads a gang of Flint's old pirates hidden among the Hispaniola's crew.
Q 17When Jim and his mother open the dead captain's sea chest, what does she insist on taking?
What he owed her
What he owed her: she keeps counting out his unpaid score coin by coin, even as the blind man's stick comes tapping back up the road.
Q 18What phrase is Silver's parrot famous for squawking?
Pieces of eight
Pieces of eight: Silver's squawking parrot helped fix the pirate-with-a-parrot image in popular culture.
Q 19Squire Trelawney hires Silver believing he lost his leg in the Navy; what had he really been under Flint?
Quartermaster
Quartermaster: yet aboard, Silver calls his parrot Cap'n Flint, after the famous buccaneer.
Q 20Long John Silver was partly modelled on which one-legged, red-bearded editor friend of Stevenson?
William Ernest Henley
Stevenson confessed in a letter to William Ernest Henley that 'the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness' had begotten Long John Silver.
Q 24Why did his shipmates maroon Ben Gunn on Treasure Island?
He found no treasure
He found no treasure: Gunn himself had urged his shipmates to land and hunt for Flint's hoard, and after twelve fruitless days they went back aboard without him.
Q 25What food does the marooned Ben Gunn crave above all else?
Cheese
Cheese: Ben Gunn dreams of it 'toasted, mostly', and the doctor wins his loyalty with the Parmesan he keeps hidden in his snuffbox.
Q 26Where does the bulk of Flint's treasure turn out to be when the pirates dig?
Already moved to Ben Gunn's cave
Already moved to Ben Gunn's cave: Gunn had dug the gold up long before, so the pirates reach an empty pit and turn on Silver and Jim.
Q 27After getting his £1,000 share, Ben Gunn was back begging on which day?
20
20: Ben Gunn blew his thousand pounds in nineteen days, then was given a lodge to keep, the very servant's job he had dreaded on the island.
Q 28Which pirate does Jim fight aboard the drifting Hispaniola after cutting her anchor cable?
Israel Hands
Israel Hands, the coxswain, goes for Jim with a dagger and is shot with both pistols; Stevenson borrowed the name from Blackbeard's real second-in-command.
Q 29What was the name of Flint's pirate ship?
The Walrus
The Walrus: Stevenson said his father, who eagerly joined in the tale's making, particularly asked for that name for Flint's old ship.
Q 30How does Ben Gunn scare the superstitious pirates during the treasure hunt?
Shouting Flint's last words from the trees
Shouting Flint's last words from the trees terrifies the pirates, until Silver recognises the voice as Ben Gunn's and they march on to dig.